Saturday, October 27, 2007

"An important new measure of the effect of Gonzales comes this week, when the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals re-evaluates Virginia's partial-birth abortion ban -- possibly the strictest ban in the nation -- in light of Gonzales. The high court remanded the Virginia law to the 4th Circuit just days after the Gonzales decision. . . .

Normally at the 4th Circuit, the identity of panel members is unknown in advance. But in this case, because it amounts to a sequel of the earlier litigation, the same three judge-panel that struck the Virginia law down in 2005 will hear it again. Judges M. Blane Michael and Diana Gribbon Motz, both Clinton appointees, are liberals, and both voted to strike down the Virginia law before. Judge Paul Niemeyer is a conservative appointee of President George H.W. Bush, and he dissented in 2005. . . .

The Virginia law, called the "Partial Birth Infanticide Act," also criminalizes the "deliberate" use of the intact D&E procedure. The 4th Circuit panel struck it down based on a 2000 Supreme Court decision striking down a Nebraska statute that was a precursor to Virginia's."